The Hazel Green herald. [volume] (Hazel Green, Wolfe County, Ky.) 1885-19??, 1887-10-21
A FAMOUS DUELIST.
Some Interesting Stories Of q
Noted French Fire-Eater.

Dueling is not an ancient institu-
ton. No traces of it are to be found
among any of the nations of anti
guilty. The medieval trial by brute
force would seem to have been the
foundation of the modern duel. The
first recognition of single combat as o
regular judicial proceeding is to be
found in the laws of Gundebald,
King of the Burgundians, at the begin
ming of the sixth century. The prac-
tice spread rapidly mong the warlike
Franks, and in the reign of Charlie
magne, three hundred years later,
il had become so universal that not
only the parties in a common suit at
law, but the witnesses and even the
judges were constantly summoned to
mortal combat in support of the JUS
tice of their cause, the truth of their
testimony or the uprightness of their
decisions. This manner of trial was
afterward restricted by Louis VII to
the decision of criminal accusations of
civil causes, when, as shown by the
ordinance he rendered in l16S, the OBJ
iect of the dispute exceeded five "sols, "
or cents, in value-tive cents in those
days being, of course, much larger
sum than it is to-day.
These laws and customs are the
sources of the duel; and it is from this
ancient practice of making the sword
the scale of justice that the modern
duel, modified from time to time, has
descended to us. Single combat rs a
judicial proceeding did not, however,
survive the fifteenth century, and with
its gradual disappearance the modern
duel became the recognized means of
indicating offended honor. Italy was
the first great field for this modified
single combat. Thence the rage
spread with redOubled fury into
France, Spain and Great Britain. In
England we hear little of it before the
pronigate days of the Stuarts. But it
is France that affords the most detailed
and authorized records of ducling.
The French Kings and Parliament long
maintained its formal and practical lc-
gality. Henry ii. presided, with his
whole court, at the combat between Nj.
de acknowledgements and M. de Jarnac,
caused by scandal, which terminated
in the death of La Chataigneraie;
when de Jarnac. his hands yet reeking
with his kinsman's blood, raised them
to Heaven and exclaimed: mot unto
me, o Lord, but unto Thy name be
thanks" Charles TX. was the last
French King who presided at one OF
these exhibitions; so he was also the
first who sought to check the practice
by naming a Court of Honor" for the
satisfaction of offenses committed
against its laws. In Henry Tvs
reign, and in defiance of his edicts in
flicting the penalty of death on all du-
elists, there fell in duels no fewer than
four thousand of his subjects, while up
wards of fourteen thousand pardon:
were granted for fighting.
About half way up the Rue de Jour
near the Sainte- Eustache Church, il
Paris, is an old house, rendered con
spicuous by wide porch and extensive
stock-in-trade of china. This, :wc
centuries ago, was the Hotel de Roy
aumont, built by Philippe Hurault
Bishop of Charles and Able of Royau
mont Later on, it was occupied by
Francois de Montmorency, Comte d.
Bouteville, who made it n genera
rendezvous for the duelists of Paris
Allthe gentlemen of the court, cage
to challenge any of their peers Owe
some love intrigue, or who for some
personal motive looked daggers a
each other on the Place Royale or thu
Cour la Refine, met at the mansion il
the Rue du Jour- Here they were hos
pitably received and entertained; the!
were offered a cold collation. will
wines and liquors before entering tn
lists, and those who had forgotten q
bring weapons were provided with
goodly selection Of polished steel
Throughout the morning there was ~
ineessant clash Of blades, each thrus
and parry being watched with intens
interest by veterans, who, after ol'
scores had been wiped of, and th
resident surgeon had bandaged th
combatants' wounds, were Invites
With tho duelists aud their seconds